Using Your Grip to Shape Your Shots

Using Your Grip to Shape Your Shots

Only the very best players in the world have become great at using their grip to shape their shots. Consider Nick Faldo at his career peak in the late 80s/early 90s, Tiger Woods, and Bubba Watson in the modern game. Learning how to draw and fade the ball using your hands is an advanced tip but try it out and see what you can do. I’ll get you started with 2 main things to focus on: grip and hands.

Using your grip to shape your shots is definitely for only the most advanced golfers. Think of this method as the most creative but also the hardest to control.

Draws

In order to hit a draw (right to left for a right hander), align your club and body to the right of your target on the start line. First, you will make your normal swing; the only difference will be through impact. Next, Faldo described how he would ‘soften’ his forearms through impact to help roll or rotate the club to produce the desired result. Using tennis as an example, a hand produced draw would be comparable to a topspin forehand shot. The right hand rolls over through the hit producing the desired curve.

Fades

In order to hit a fade using your hands, start by aligning your club face and body to the left of your target. We will use a tennis analogy again. This time, instead of the topspin forehand, you want to imagine you’re hitting a forehand drop shot. Through impact, you want to undercut the ball slightly to delay the release. This will produce a left to right ball flight.

Again, this is an advanced move. While I advise on most shots, to remain quiet with your hands and arms. But it can be fun to experiment. Play around with these two methods on your short shots sometimes to see what you can do with a golf ball. For a simpler way to shape your draws and fades, try using ball position.